Early Ed Watch

A Blog from New America's Early Education Initiative

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Podcast: Connecting Obama's Preschool Proposal to School 'Turnarounds'

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
March 1, 2013
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In January, we held an event called Turnaround 2.0 to draw attention to the challenge of turning around elementary schools without improving the early years – including the early grades of elementary school – when children are building their foundational skills for academic success. Now that we have seen the outlines of President Obama's preschool proposal, these questions are hotter than ever. Depending on how and if Obama's plan moves forward, improvements to elementary schools may come more easily (though, no doubt, much work would still be required to improve instruction across the PreK-3rd grades.)

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Seeing Evidence of Teacher Confidence in the Common Core

  • By
  • Lindsey Tepe
March 1, 2013
With 46 states and the District of Columbia adopting the Common Core State Standards, successful implementation will require a better understanding of teacher preparedness. This proves especially true for educators in the early grades. Though much attention has been focused on higher grade levels that will begin using common assessments in the 2014-2015 school year, K-2 teachers have the responsibility for building the strong math and literacy foundation outlined in the Common Core standards.
 
Are teachers feeling ready?
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Facing Up to Fade-Out: About Preschool and the Birth-to-Third-Grade Continuum

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
February 25, 2013

This morning, The Atlantic published a commentary I wrote with my colleague Laura Bornfreund about facing up to "fade-out." The article describes why, if Obama's preschool plan is to gain momentum, it would be smart to proceed with a two-pronged approach: give children deep learning experiences in their birth-to-five years and make improvements to the K-3 grades of elementary school.

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Whiplash: From Last Week’s Hope to the Prospect of Deep Funding Cuts

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
February 22, 2013

The early education world is about to suffer some serious whiplash. Last week was a time of excitement and hope, as President Obama announced his proposal for expanding preschool. This week the mood is the opposite, as federal spending cuts look increasingly likely, spelling potential hardship for a wide swath of programs, including Head Start, special education services and Title I school funding.

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Don’t Forget Full-Day Kindergarten

  • By
  • Laura Bornfreund
February 21, 2013

An under-examined aspect of President Obama’s new early childhood education plan is his proposal to encourage states to create more full-day kindergarten seats – though only after states are able to guarantee access to pre-K for all 4-year olds from low and moderate-income families.

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Federal Report Finds Educational Inequities, Pushes for Access to Early Learning

  • By
  • Clare McCann
February 20, 2013
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The Equity and Excellence Commission, a board established by Congress in 2010 to study school finance issues, released its final report this week, For Each and Every Child.

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Georgia and Oklahoma Show What’s Possible in Pre-K – and Where Challenges Lie

  • By
  • Kristin Blagg
  • Lindsey Tepe
February 14, 2013
Early education advocates have been clamoring for details since Tuesday evening, when President Obama used his State of the Union to propose the goal of universal preschool for four-year olds.
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New Details: Obama’s Pre-K Proposal Stresses Birth through Five Continuum, Presents Political Challenges

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
  • Clare McCann
  • Laura Bornfreund
  • Anne Hyslop
February 14, 2013

In President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday, he called on Congress to expand high-quality early learning opportunities to low- and moderate-income children. Today, with the release of a White House document and a speech at a Decatur, Ga. pre-K center, Obama sketched more of the plan’s details.

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State of the Union Calls for Greater Access to Pre-K, Provides Few Details

  • By
  • Clare McCann
February 13, 2013
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In a wide-ranging State of the Union address delivered to the full House and Senate last night, President Obama earned a long applause when he called for a new initiative to “work with states” to expand high-quality preschool to every American child.

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Question 2 on Obama’s Pre-K Plan: How Will Quality Be Defined?

  • By
  • Lisa Guernsey
February 13, 2013

Every word matters in a State of the Union address, and the words “high-quality” in President Obama’s preschool proposal are no exception. To arrive at the $7 returned on every dollar spent on pre-K – the figure Obama used in his speech last night* -- states and the federal government would need to offer preschool programs that are good enough to make a real, lasting difference for young children. 

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